Detroit Pistons star Malik Beasley is reportedly the subject of a new gambling investigation regarding NBA game bets.
News broke on Sunday, June 29, that the U.S. district attorney’s office was looking into Beasley, 28, on allegations of gambling. ESPN, who broke the news, reported that prominent betting sites detected unusually heavy interest in Beasley’s statistics in 2024.
Beasley’s lawyer swiftly addressed the accusations, asserting that the guard has not yet been charged with a crime.
“An investigation is not a charge,” Beasley’s attorney, Steve Haney, told ESPN in a statement. “Malik is afforded the same right of the presumption of innocence as anyone else under the U.S. Constitution. As of now, he has not been charged with anything.”
Malik Beasley’s wife Montana Yao has filed for separation after nearly five years of marriage. According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Yao, 27, filed for a legal separation on Monday, March 3, two days before the pair’s fifth wedding anniversary. The influencer cited “irreconcilable differences” as the reason for the split. Yao is […]
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Beasley, who previously played basketball with the Milwaukee Bucks, signed with the Pistons in June 2024. Both the Pistons and the NBA as a whole have pledged to cooperate with the investigation.
“We are cooperating with the federal prosecutors’ investigation,” NBA spokesperson Mike Bass told NBC Sports in a statement.
Beasley was previously arrested in 2020 for a felony weapons charge. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 120 days in jail with a three-year probation. The pro athlete served his sentence after the 2020-2021 NBA season, later receiving a 12-game suspension from the league.
That same year, Beasley’s then-wife, Montana Yao, filed for divorce after he was rumored to be dating Real Housewives of Miami star Larsa Pippen. (Beasley and Yao, now 27, share son Makai, who was born in 2019.)
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“I wanna say sorry for putting you in the situation you were put in the last few months. my head wasn’t were it was supposed to be,” Beasley wrote in a May 2021 statement, apologizing to Yao. “I was looking for more when it was right here that whole time. I’m telling the world and you that there’s nobody like you for me.”
He added, “For the record, I was the one who ended my last relationship off the fact that there is no one like you. Also, for the record, I wanted to do my own ‘cuz I just left u guys and I def ain’t the type to set up pictures at the mall … that’s some childish ish and I’m trying to grow individually and grow a family. I ain’t looking to be judged. I’m looking for forgiveness. To forgive me for hurting my family the way I did.”
Yao later withdrew her petition, only to file again in March of this year.